Category: Home Improvement

7 Tips To Furnish A Small Living Room

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

Houses are getting smaller and smaller by the day, at least in packed-up urban spaces. Now, this does impose some limitations on what you can and cannot do with your living space but it certainly does not mean that your small apartment should look any less beautiful than its larger suburban counterparts. Apart from the architectural and décor elements, your choice of furniture will determine the aesthetic appeal and functional utility of your space. If you are buying lounge furniture for a rather cramped living room, here’s what you might want to keep in mind.

Use a lighter color palette

This is one of the easiest ways to give your room an open, airy feel. White, off-white, taupe, and pastels are all neural colors and are easy to mix and match. Light hues also reflect light to make your living room look more spacious. To avoid monotony, use different textures, fabrics, and patterns. Even a self-print helps add depth to the space.

Don’t waste the corners

Every inch of space is precious and you do not want furniture that takes up unnecessary space. Corner modular help you make use of corners that would otherwise be rendered redundant with an odd vase sitting in them to fill up the emptiness. Modulars also give you more seating capacity and leave a more open area in the center of the room.

Choose multipurpose furniture

 

If your living room is small, chances are that the rest of your home is too. Maximize your space by opting for furniture that serves a dual purpose. For example, the ottoman could have underlying storage and the sofa could be pulled out into a double bed. This also enhances the utility of the space, especially if you have to entertain house guests.

Pick furniture with legs

 

Upholstered furniture does give your house a rich, cozy feel but it is also bulky and space-consuming. Light, minimalistic pieces, on the other hand, give an unobstructed view of the floor, thus making the space look larger.  The key is to choose furniture that “looks” light, irrespective of its actual size and weight.

Keep the lines simple

You may be tempted to buy that semi-circular contemporary sofa but can your space really accommodate it? When you are short on space, always choose furniture with clean, straight lines that fit easily against the wall.

Play up the vertical

We often forget that our room also has a vertical element to it and it is surprising how this can be used to give the illusion of a more expansive space. Emphasize the vertical lines by using striped curtains that run from floor to ceiling or a printed/textured blind against a blank wall.

Be careful about the coffee table

 

If you must have a coffee table pick one that is inconspicuous and doesn’t obstruct the view of the room. A small-sized table with clean lines and perhaps a glass top is any day recommended over a large blocky game table. Narrow benches also make for wonderful center tables as they are functional and take up minimal space.

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Top 5 Orlando Home Renovations that give you the highest a return on your Investment

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

Renovating a home can be tricky if your goal is to get a return on your investment. Just because you spend money on a property it doesn’t always guarantee that it will increase in value. It’s important to know how to spend your renovation budget wisely in order to get the highest return on your investment. Since 2004 we’ve successfully rehabbed well over 300 Orlando properties. In that time we learned a heck of a lot about Orlando home renovations and unfortunately, some lessons were learned the hard way. By knowing what the return on your investment will be on different renovation projects that you may want to complete on your property, you will be able to maximize every dollar that you spend. Going off of my own experiences as an Orlando Realtor, we’ve put together a list of what has given us the biggest return on our investment dollars on any renovation project.

 

Top 5 renovations for getting the biggest bang for your buck

 

1-Clean and De-clutter- Removing the clutter from a house and making it spotless should be at the top of your list of any renovation. By removing bulky or furniture from a house you will give it an automatic facelift and not only that, your house will appear to be much larger. I once had a client list their house with me and when I instruct them to clean and de-clutter their home for showing purposes, she fell in love with her newly de-cluttered home all over again then decided not to sell after all. And with the exception of a few cleaning supplies, there is really know other cost involved because this is something that you can easily do yourself.

 

2-Paint- A new paint job will by far give you the highest return on your investment. Not only does paint make a huge difference in the overall appearance of the house, but it’s also the cheapest improvement that you can do to a home with the exception of cleaning it. The best part is that it’s something you can do yourself and save even more money. Painting might seem like a daunting task to some, but with the right tools and a little internet knowledge, you can do the job yourself and save even more money. Youtube is a great place to go for any instructional video that you can think of. In this case, you would just type “How to paint a house” into the search bar. Another place you can go is the Home Depot and ask when their next painting class will be. It’s a free workshop and good for people who prefer the hands-on learning approach.

 

3-Landscaping- By improving the landscape of a home you give it great curb appeal and give a potential buyer a reason to want to see more. You don’t have to be a professional landscaper in order to do a great job in your own yard. You do however, need to learn some basic landscape design. Just like most things today, there are a million free resources available to you online on landscaping tips and ideas. You should start by trimming up any existing landscaping that you decide is worth keeping, sometimes that may be all you have to. I always like to add annuals to the landscaping for a splash of color. Annuals are cheap and really bring any landscape design to life, make sure that you install plants that are in season to get the longest life from them. Although I use general contractors on all our re-habs, I always do the landscaping myself because it’s something that I enjoy doing.

 

4- Upgrade the Kitchen- OK , now it starts getting expensive. However, nothing will sell a house like an amazing kitchen. It’s very well known in real estate that in a couple’s situation, the lady of the household usually makes the ultimate decision…”To buy or not to buy”. This is a room where you don’t want to go cheap, but you don’t want to go broke either. Try to salvage anything that’s worth salvaging, appliances, cabinetry, etc. On one of my very first re-habs , I made the mistake of renovating the entire house except the kitchen trying to save a  few bucks. The property ended up sitting on the market for 6 months and I didn’t get the purchase price that I was hoping for. Again don’t go cheap, even if you have to re-do the entire kitchen with wood cabinetry, granite counter tops and high-end appliances you should have to spend more than 5 or 6 thousand dollars which is money well spent for maximizing the return on your investment dollars.

 

5-Upgrade the Bathrooms – You won’t need to spend near as much on a bathroom upgrade as you would on renovating a kitchen. Like a kitchen renovation, investing in a nice bathroom is well worth it when it comes time to sell the house. You can get pre-made vanities that come with stone countertops in the 6 to 8 hundred dollar range and I suggest that you always replace the toilet unless it’s in “like new” condition. No one wants to see, let alone sit on an old dirty toilet. Even if you had to replace everything in the entire bathroom with high-end fixtures and furnishings, you shouldn’t have to spend more than a thousand bucks to complete the project and you can rest assured that it’s money well spent. People spend a lot of time in the bathroom that’s why it’s important that they enjoy their surroundings while they’re in there.

Do you want to know what your house is worth? Visit us at https://orlandorealtyconsultants.com/

 

Realtor in Orlando, FL

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Tenant’s Guide To Organizing A Successful Accommodation

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

Any given individual out there, with the ability of making a profit out of real estate ownership will surely go for it without hesitation. The power contained within properties goes back decades in times where home was evaluated to a degree unmatched by most things existing back then. Throughout the ages not much has changes, because the battle for real estate is ever so fearsome, even today. Continue reading “Tenant’s Guide To Organizing A Successful Accommodation”

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Why More And More People Are Building Their Own Homes

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

Everybody has in their mind’s eye a vision of the absolute perfect home they would live to live in, however, that home usually doesn’t exist in real life. Whether you want a special artistic style to your house, for example, you want your home to have turrets and glass walls, or you just want to live somewhere obscure, sometimes the only way to make that dream home a reality is to build it yourself. In the past, this was seen as very much a rich person’s pursuit, with everybody outside the millionaire elite just making do with houses and apartments that already existed. However, in today’s crazy market, more and more families are choosing to take on home building projects. Here we look at why.

Profit

There is no denying that building a home to your own specifications is a grand and expensive undertaking. However, it is also a good way to make a profit. Land, when bought by itself, can be obtained relatively cheaply, and while developing your own house can cost a lot, the resulting property is all yours, and should you ever choose to leave and sell it, it is likely to be worth more than the combined cost of the land and the development work if you chose a good style that isn’t hard to market to other people.

Perfection

Some people might want a house in a certain area with a number of very specific features, but what if there isn’t a place on the market that has all of them? If it is something relatively superficial you want, like an outdoor pool or a second bathroom, you may be able to buy a house close to your needs and do some work on it to make it meet your idea of the perfect home for you and your family, but this can cost a lot. In many cases, if someone has a very clear idea of what they really would like it is better, and more cost-effective, to buy land and design a new build house themselves. A new construction home can have the exact number of rooms you want and the layout you see as ideal (as long as the architect thinks it is possible), and can also have any unusual features you have always thought would be cool.

Fun

One of the other reasons more and more people are taking on their own home building projects is that it is essentially a very fun and exciting thing to do. You get to manage the process and see your dream home become a reality from the ground up. You can be involved as much or as little as you like, but the vision is always yours, so whether you are there in a hard hat every day or you just watch from afar, you are seeing a brand new perfect home for you and your family evolve! For many people, the idea of being involved with the project is almost as exciting as the idea of living in a home that is exactly what they have always dreamed of!

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Dressing Windows with Curtains

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

There are numerous ways to dress up your windows but curtains offer the most luxury and variety. You have a huge range of possibilities for different materials from sheer to think or embossed or embroidered, a number of textures are available such as velvety materials or denim or suede etc. while colour and pattern can also easily be added especially if you want to complement a rug or your wall canvas.

For an elegant touch, it’s best to let your curtains hand to the floor while if your window is small and you want it to appear large then the trick is to place the curtain rod higher, here are different ideas you can use when decorating with curtains:

  • Patchwork Curtains

Not many patchwork curtains are scene nowadays thus it’s a pretty unique technique and a highly attractive way to add colour, pattern and even texture. For a neutral room, numerous different neutral coloured fabrics can be taken and patched together to go along with the theme while for a child’s room a multitude of colours such as blue, orange and yellow can be selected to brighten it up. A colourful check pattern can be created, stripes are a possibility while an abstract pattern can also be created using squares and rectangles of different sizes especially if you have matching canvas prints art on the walls.

  • Bordered Curtains

Curtains can be used to greatly add to the decor of a room if they are given extra decor by the addition of a border. A plain curtain can be given a patterned border or vice versa while a neutral coloured curtain can be brightened up by a contrasting border or a rich colour curtain can be toned down by a neutral coloured border. The width of the border is completely up to you, also depending on the size of your window, choose as much as you want it to show. Remember to add the border on all four sides else it will only look out of place.

  • Curtains With Creative Ends

This is an excellent decorating technique if you are sure no piece of furniture will be placed in front of your curtains to hide their end. Basically, this technique involves adding a border only to the lower horizontal ends of the curtains; this will draw the eye to the length making them seem longer and elegant. A patch of a different fabric can be added for texture, print can be added subtly or bold colour can be added in fewer amounts. This technique is also great to introduce decorative elements to the curtains by saving costs as you won’t have to work on the entire fabric, thus only the bottom can be embroidered or appliquéd etc.

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